Alfred Eisenstaedt was a German Jewish photographer born in 1898. He moved to Berlin at the age of 8 and from a young age was passionate about photography.
He fought for the German army in the First World War and was injured shortly before the end of the war in 1918. He worked as a button salesman during the 1920s but was working on a freelance basis as a photographer for Pacific and Atlantic Photos. In 1929, he finally became a full time photographer, at the age of 31.
Some of his most notable early pictures were of the formative years of the leaders of the Nazi movement. He photographed a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Italy, and he was also responsible for taking an iconic image of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in 1933 at the Carlton Hotel in Geneva for a League of Nations meeting. Goebbels had apparently initially been friendly but then completely changed his attitude when he discovered Eisenstaedt was Jewish. The iconic image is of a seated Goebbels gripping his chair arms and glowering at the camera.
Eisenstaedt left Germany to escape persecution in 1935 and began working for the newly launched Life magazine in 1936 as one of its four staff photographers. Probably his most famous and long lasting photographs was the one that he took of an anonymous sailor in Time Square in New York on VJ Day in 1945, when the Allies won the war. The shot, of a sailor passionately kissing a woman he had just met reflected the joy and relief at the ending of a war which had such a lifelong impact on everyone it had touched. Eisenstaedt continued to work until the end of his life, shooting some well known shots of President Bill Clinton in 1993, just two years before his death at the age of 96.
About Antonisia Schroder ASJ Photography
Antonisia Schroder’s photography has been shaped over years of experience and experimentation.
Antonisia was always inquisitive about the world around her; a quality that served her well as she grew older and began to see that world through a lens rather than the naked eye.
With her Portuguese roots, Antonisia’s desire to explore saw her travel around Europe where she lived with her mother in Switzerland for a short time and also lived in Spain and the UK. Over the following years, she used travel and psychology as two of her main inspirations.
After settling in the UK, she began to train as a professional photographer, achieving a BTEC Award at Thurrock and Basildon College in Essex, a National Diploma in photography from Havering College in London and a BA degree in photography from the University of East London. She is currently back at the University of East London studying for an MA in art/photography.
As her work on her website shows (http://asjphotography.wix.com/antonisia-schroder), her art encompasses a wide variety of topics and inspirations throughout a life characterized by change, adventure and discovery.
Antonisia now specialises in running exhibitions of her work and has published a number of books showcasing her portfolio, including ‘The Art of Feeling’, ‘Remembrance Day’, children’s book ‘Southend on Sea Tales’ and ‘The Quotes of William Shakespeare’. In 2012, she was the first artist to exhibit at the new £3million Southend Pier Cultural Centre and was one of the leading artists in the Essex Summer of Art, part of the county’s Olympic Legacy project in 2012.
What viewers will always find with her work is an eye for detail and an inventive take on traditional topics, as well as using the skills of photomontage and paintography to communicate with her audience.
Antonisia has also worked in schools and with other groups to impart her knowledge and experience and is passionate about the importance of teaching as well as learning in her career.
An Understanding of Photography 
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